"Casey Rousseau" <casey at trinityhartford.org> writes: >On the other hand searching for the intention of the author is a dangerous >journey. Since we're getting into the realm of Lit. Crit., I'll throw this >out. >Anyone else here a fan of Umberto Eco? (On the fiction side he wrote _The >Name of the Rose_ among others. I'm particularly asking about his >nonfiction.) I've read 'Name of the Rose' and 'Foucault's Pendulum', but the only non-fiction is his essay/postscript about 'Name of the Rose.' I've got a very low opinion of the literary deconstruction movement; Chip Morningstar says it far better than I can in his delightful essay at <http://www.dourish.com/goodies/decon.html>. Nonetheless, I found what Foucault wrote in that postscript to be fascinating and revealing - and not much about deconstruction as Chip describes it. Having spent far too much time around academics, it's perfectly possible that both Foucault and Chip are right -- and the folks Chip describes are merely engaging in self-delusion or manipulation of the system for their own ends rather than actual pursuit of knowledge. *shrug*